A Hundred Fragments
by YukiSkye
Summary: Splinters and parts, pieces and fragments all that come together to form the mosaic of their relationship and of themselves. A hundred short snippets for a hundred themes. PxF
1. A Hundred Fragments

So I found a list of 100 themes on Tumblr and decided to give it a whirl. Let me tell you, it's a lot harder than it looks but I've actually rather enjoyed it. It gave me an opportunity to revise my headcanons and get more of a feel for the two main characters and their relationships with one another so overall, very much worth the effort.

While I understand Aria would've played a major role in Phantom's life, this is going to focus primarily on Phantom and Freud.

**#63 might be a bit graphic in the gore so those who are squeamish beware.**

I also attempted to fit each prompt with a Maplestory BGM afterwards but it became evident that it's not going to work because most just don't fit and I don't want to force it. I don't like asking people to listen to this music or that while reading because you each have your own tastes and your own perception of which music fits best but if it might entertain you, feel free to go to the next chapter. Most of these (save for one, Release Your Spirit High) could easily be found at SlipySlidy's wonderful channel. Otherwise, feel free to listen or not listen to whatever you please. Maybe at another time I'll attempt to make snippets out of the BGMs themselves.

* * *

1. **Introduction**

Their first meeting was anything but conventional. The person who came to him wasn't exactly conventional either for that matter. But despite the suddenness and randomness of it all, their introduction flowed surprisingly smoothly, words and actions gliding in near perfect harmony as if they had rehearsed for this meeting all their lives and Freud couldn't help but wonder what the future had in store for them.

2. **Complicated**

Their relationship wasn't complex exactly so much as it is deep although it could easily be mistaken for such. Phantom was a man caught in the chains of time and Freud was the pragmatist who could only ever be grounded in the present. By any means, they shouldn't be seeing eye-to-eye. But it wasn't as simple as that.

It was the layers upon layers of unspoken mutual knowledge of the meaning of "loss," "loneliness," "guilt," and "outcast" more powerful than differences in experience could ever overcome.

And they both understood that.

3.** (Making) History**

"Tonight, we're making history," Phantom proclaimed, arms crossed over his chest, sheer white cape billowing behind him as dramatic as the man who wore it, chin tilted slightly upward as he stood at the helm of his magnificent ship, the Lumiere.

Freud's eyes flickered briefly over towards him before fixating themselves once again at the ominous dark shapes lingering in the distance sprawled like a disease amidst the sickly reddish-purple clouds in the distance, a ghost of a smirk playing the edges of his lips.

"We were making history even long before."

4. **Rivalry**

"This rivalry is getting ridiculous," Freud sighed as he watched Luminous stalk away for the nth time.

Phantom gave a noncommittal shrug but didn't so much as attempt to justify himself.

He didn't have to either because Freud already knew it wasn't merely a disagreement of temperament and mentalities but something more discreet, something more fundamental and much more raw than what appeared on the surface. And there was nothing Freud could do about it.

5. **Unbreakable**

No one was unbreakable, least of all him. But he doesn't like to remember that because if he were breakable, it meant he was hurting and he didn't want to remember that because it'll cripple him and he so _hated _feeling weak. He never wanted to feel weak ever again. He already had a lifetime of that.

But no one was unbreakable, least of all him and when it all came down to it, he still needed someone he could break in front of every once in a while.

6. **Obsession**

Avid flames of Hell, unquenchable and blazing in the inferno of his incensed passion that roared and wreaked a path of destruction, the feverish haze of his craze a most devilish curtain over judgment that devoured his sanity, wild and frightful but deliriously rapturous and manic.

And he would have it no other way.

7. **Eternity**

"Wouldn't it be nice," Phantom murmured as he reached up from where he lay in the shadowed grass under a great tree, head nestled comfortably on Freud's lap, and played with the glinting aquamarine brooch beneath the Dragon Master's collar. "If we could stay like this forever?"

Freud's lips twitched in amusement.

"I certainly hope not because if that were the case, I would have to deal with numb legs until the end of time."

Phantom laughed.

8. **Gateway**

The gateway to rapture had opened once.

But it had been forced to lock.

The gateway to rapture had opened twice.

But he did not answer its call.

The gateway to rapture has since closed.

He'll never see it open again.

9. **Death**

Death was no stranger to him. He's seen it many times, a constant companion like a perpetual shroud over his head.

People who could no longer sustain themselves on the streets. People who had given up. People who got in way over their heads. Sometimes, death was dealt by his very own hands and sometimes he was the one standing before death's judgment.

Death was no stranger. He's seen hundreds die before his indifferent eyes.

Life and death, death and life. It was simply the course of nature.

But even so… even so...

How could the deaths of just two people shatter him so completely?

10. **Opportunities**

Freud wasn't opportunistic.

If he were, he would've seized and even reveled in what his family had attempted to force onto him for ages as a prodigy rarely born even once in a century.

No, he wouldn't describe himself as opportunistic but he was prudent and learning what he could of Phantom was as much to satisfy his scientifically-born curiosity as it was out of cautiousness which was what had led him to take every chance presented before him in order to understand the thief.

Who knew that he would come to understand universes within this one man.

11. **Thirty-three (Percent) **

Six percent and counting.

Freud groaned and winced at his stiff neck but he daren't rub the sore spot lest he potentially ruin a whole day's work just getting the experiment to this point.

Twelve percent and counting.

"Freud," Phantom drawled from somewhere on the other side of his lab but he ignored it, attentive as he was to what was in front of him.

Nineteen percent and counting.

He felt a warm gloved hand brush the back of his neck before nimble fingers worked to expertly unknot the muscle, smooth silk slipping across his skin and Freud sighed in relief.

"Thank you," he murmured.

Twenty-four percent and counting.

Freud knew Phantom was grinning and his lips slanted gently downward in bafflement even as he continued to concentrate on the task at hand.

"What?"

Twenty-nine percent and counting.

"Nothing."

Thirty-three percent and counting.

12. **Wrong**

It wasn't often that he was wrong. At least, on matters of logic and science but on matters of the ever fluctuating and incalculable human heart and mind and being human himself destined to err constantly in life, even he would fall short.

In this case, he had seriously underestimated the depths of Phantom's feelings for revenge, the lengths he would go in pursuit of Orchid and Lotus even in as desperate an hour as now.

And it left him feeling strangely cold.

13. **Running**

Everything for the sake of distraction, to stall it for as long as possible as though the heat of his rage could somehow erase the thoughts heavy in his mind and purge the guilty weight in his heart.

He had faced down death and danger alike, getting along by the skin of his teeth, stared down immensely powerful opponents as they thundered down their full might to crush him and yet, all he could do here was run, duck his head beneath his hands and whimper like a coward and run and because of that, he was going to repeat his mistake again.

They didn't deserve that. He knew it. But that only made him run harder but it seemed the more he ran, the more ensnared he became and it was only a matter of time before he'll have no choice but to be forced to stare down the pitch black gaping jaws of all his combined dread.

14.** Judgment**

If there was something he was more fearful of than the judgment of Heaven itself, it was the judgment they would have wrought upon him for what he did had they still been alive.

15. **Solace **

"What's wrong?" asked a soft chuckling voice, subtle vibrations rumbling against him.

Freud knit his brows and grumbled, turning to press his face against solid warmth, letting himself become enwrapped in that same warmth like a protective cocoon.

"Never mind," Freud managed to mumble out, already drifting back into the recesses of sleep even as the twisted remnants of his previous dream started to melt back into the crevices of nothingness.

16. **Excuses **

Freud raised a brow.

It was a warning and Phantom knew it, his sputtering taking on a more frantic edge to explain away why this was not the first, the second, the third, or even the _fourth _time that same week he had come back to find his house in a mess with an equally tussled-looking Luminous next to the thief staring downward onto the ground, pale features flushed red in embarrassment and shame.

"Don't just stand there. Help me out," Phantom hissed, jabbing his partner-in-crime none too gently in the ribs with his elbow.

Luminous grunted, shooting a venomous glare full of his ire at his detested rival before turning guilty eyes to Freud.

"I am… sincerely sorry, Freud. My humblest of apologies. I don't… I don't quite know…"

"Thank you for the sentiment, Luminous but that doesn't tell me why both of you decided to turn my house into your own personal battleground for the _fifth_ time," Freud said, his voice dropping an octave lower at the end into a dark and foreboding tone.

Both men gulped.

17. **Vengeance**

He remembered once upon a time when he cursed the world and spat at his fate, when he had snarled at the chains that bound him, for the life he had not chosen to be given.

But all he could do in the end was grit his teeth and become all but mute, hoping his passive silence, indifferent words, and jaded eyes would carry him through until the termination of his life.

His hatred and ire had bubbled out from the foreright of his seething heart and spilled over to the rest of his soul to taint it black, black, black.

He had managed to overcome this troubling period of time of his life but it was happening again right in front of his eyes, in liquid violet that is all but gone from this world, all light consumed and leaving only spiraling darkness behind.

18. **Love**

It was love that moved him into vengeance.

It was love that had led to his downfall.

It was love that he realized too late.

It was love that birthed his regrets.

19. **Tears**

Crystalline tears of a kind rarely seen, pure in their honesty yet sad in the way each one carried with them a fragment of an inner agony that twisted at his throbbing heartstrings but still helpless to do anything except catch them as they fell and turn them into stars.

20. **Inspiration**

The space of the musty study was silent save for the quiet shuffling of papers and the scratching of a single quill as it etched its black marks across the pages beneath its inked tip.

A soft exhale of breath and an indulgent smile as amused marine blue eyes finally looked up.

"Is there something the matter that you keep staring at me in such a way?"

Phantom grinned in turn, full of mischief and playful flirtatiousness that belie the genuine affection underneath.

"Why should there be something wrong for me to stare at you? You are my inspiration after all."

21. **Never (Again) **

His world was full of doubts, his failures keep stacking too high to see anymore, too substantial to ignore or carry.

Should he ever love again? Should he even care anymore? Could he even protect anything?

He didn't think so but as young, bright sky blues full of childhood and spring blinked at him in idolizing adoration and admiration, he knew he had no choice. He had unwittingly placed himself in this position. He would have to.

He never wanted to fall short again. There was too much to lose if he did. Because he won't be able to survive a third heartbreak.

22. **Planet**

The world perhaps wasn't as big a place as many had thought, Freud contemplated. Because within each person and around every single individual was a planet all on its own made up of the ones that surrounded them.

Each person was their own distinct planet but they still shared their own world with others in a way that was both distant yet linked in a fundamentally intrinsic way.

And if anyone could be lucky enough, they might even find someone who shared the same exact world.

23.** Failure**

Freud wasn't used to failure. His whole life had always been an ongoing train of successes one after another. He may encounter hiccups here and there but he had always, always succeeded in the end and that was all that really mattered to him.

But this time, he wasn't so sure the end results mattered as much as the discrepancies in his journey there because although they succeeded in their quest against the Black Mage, he will not live to see the peace that can finally come to fruit. He'll make Phantom suffer for his shortcoming.

And that was perhaps the greatest failure he could ever make.

24. **Rebirth**

From the ashes of the phoenix is born a new legacy, a clean slate, blank and free for the new generation to engrave their own legends and tales.

_Freud, _Phantom prayed. _Watch over your young successor._

25. **Breaking (Away) **

It wasn't easy to amend his old ways.

Half the time he would find himself accidentally sneaking around people, automatically and unconsciously evaluating the worth of any finery he caught sight of, and if he accidentally found a valuable or two nestled comfortably on his persons? Whoops.

Of course, if Freud ever caught him at it, he'd receive a tongue-lashing and an earful but hey, at least he didn't try to hail a storm of arrows at him.

26. **Forever (And a Day)**

He was a man of great patience when it came to such matters and Phantom so obviously needed that.

He could appreciate Phantom because he was so complex but it was also this same complexity that has the thief ensnared.

That's alright though.

He had confidence that there will come a time when Phantom will be able to untangle himself one knot at a time. He may not be able to completely free himself but it will be enough.

He'll wait forever and a day for that moment to come.

27. **Lost (and Found)**

"What are you thinking of?" Phantom asked, chuckling as he tapped at Freud's temple.

Freud huffed but nonetheless smiled, the tilt of his lips gentle and subdued, his eyes never leaving the starry dome above them. "Nothing of terrible importance."

"Really?" Phantom turned his attention back at the night sky hanging over their heads. "With the way you do that, I'm afraid that someday, you'll start to drift from me, far away to a place I can't follow."

"I could say the same for you," Freud hummed back. "But you found me and I found you." He looked over to Phantom, marine blues twinkling in starlight. "I suppose we'll just have to be each other's anchors."

Phantom grinned. "I like that."

28. **Light**

The room was dark save for the light from a single candle, its flickering orange flame nestled behind its protective glass confines.

Word after word poured forth from his mind and onto the parchment across which his quill danced.

In this small sphere of candlelight was his quiet little world, undisturbed and silent as he worked; the sole occupant of this tiny, lonely little place.

A warm hand encircles his wrist, stopping his hand midsentence and Freud sighs, craning his neck up to the sight of a cheerily grinning Phantom.

"Bedtime," he says simply and forcibly ushers a complaining Freud away from his shimmering spot of candlelight.

29. **Dark**

All the world was razed in Hellfire but Phantom was cold.

Behold for yonder lay the person he had thought he'd never allow to fall.

All the world was ablaze in Hellfire but it was still oh so dark.

30. **Faith**

He never believed in anything like destiny or fate or even luck. The years of his life had made sure to beat that out of his embittered body.

The only thing he ever trusted and believed in was his own self and his own skills.

But somehow, even he managed to betray himself in the end.

31. **Colors**

Vibrant scarlet streaked brilliantly across obsidian black, violets and blues shimmering and twisting in violent zigzags splattered with innocent white and serene gold.

Phantom scrunched his face at the canvas in front of him and wondered what the heck he had just splashed onto it before giving up and deciding that what infinitesimal considerations he may have for a future career as an artist was shot and maybe he should just stick to his occupation as a thief.

"If I had my doubts before, it's clear now. You are definitely not suited for art. You should just stick with the one thing you're actually half decent at and call it a day hm?"

Phantom turned behind him and glared sullenly at his butler.

He knew that already! Gaston didn't need to say it out loud!

32. **Exploration**

Everything was in exploration of one another; their limits, their irks, their quirks, their sentiments, their muses, their everything.

It was always a continual process but they find the journey nonetheless somehow contenting.

33. **Seeing (Red)**

When he had first heard of Evan and his little stunt with the Black Wings that besmirched the title, the legacy, and all that Freud had so painstakingly built, he saw _red._

He took the boy in and vowed to set him straight.

But afterwards, he started seeing red everywhere, almost quite literally.

Red was in Evan's coat and he had to curse how startlingly he resembled Freud that he began to see red robes everywhere.

34. **Shades (of Gray)**

The world was made of shades of gray, always featureless, always unclear.

Lifeless.

Meaningless.

Nothingness.

This was the world he lived in for many, many years.

His uncle was his spot of color in his life, a brave, defiant man who strove to be a Dark Knight at a time when it was frowned upon.

Afrien was his first splash of color, a majestic gold and thoughtful black, he had opened his eyes to the world he had long shuttered away.

Phantom was next to make his mark but he was by far a more peculiar case not nearly so straightforward and much more complicated, just like the man himself.

He was always neither and both at once, opaque and clear.

He wasn't exactly deplorable but he wasn't exactly an exemplary model of a human being either. There were times when he absolutely shone for the wrong reasons while there were other times when he was the lowest of the low for the right ones.

He was more… something in between. Phantom was…

Gray.

35. **Forgotten**

It sucked to be forgotten. He had rather enjoyed his infamy. Without his background as a notorious thief behind him anymore, he only hoped people won't start calling him a hero when he fought the Black Mage once more because he was no gallant hero and a protector even less so.

36. **Dreamer**

Neither were dreamers, Phantom too disillusioned and Freud too realistic.

Still, they often found themselves hoping and imagining as they contemplated the ephemeral future before them as they conversed.

37. **Mist**

The early morning mist shrouded the surrounding greenery as they strolled through quiet forests in the peaceful eves of morning.

The world was at standstill, peace in suspension in which they could pretend that everything was all right.

38. **Burning**

Afrien's flames were searing, scorching enough to burn or melt anything that so much as surrounds it yet through careful arcane draconian magic, the surrounding fauna and flora remained relatively unscathed save the scorch marks on the ground as he meted out his punishment at the yelping thief who dared steal his Master away as Phantom nimbly twisted this way and that like a dancing leaf before the torrents of fire.

Freud simply skipped another stone and waited for the debacle to end.

39. **(Out of )Time**

He could almost feel it, the silky smooth sand slipping through his fingers as it slides down an invisible hourglass counting down towards his end.

He knows it and he wants to resist it but he had never been one to fight against inevitability. That had always been more Phantom's forte.

It was too late now.

He was out of time.

40. **Knowing (How)**

People were rarely as they seemed at first glance, much less them. They're simply harder to discern than the average person.

But that didn't mean Phantom lacked virtue any more than Freud lacked flaws.

It's only a matter of knowing how to bring them out that eludes most.

41. **(Fork in the) Road**

One path forward, its end unseen; one path backwards choked of all life by overgrown vines of thorns and musty gloom; two branching off the middle ahead both equally unclear; one to the right enshrouded in fog, mysterious and captivating all at once; one to the left, crooked and ruined as the surrounding gnarled forest twisted in unhinged contempt full of sneers and smirks.

Six paths.

Two people.

One decision.

42. **Start**

It started with mutual curiosity.

Curiosity led to learning.

Learning bloomed into realization.

Realization turned into understanding.

Understanding grew into acceptance.

Acceptance into support.

Support into close friendship.

Close friendship into

43. **(Nature's) Fury**

"PHANTOM!"

The enraged screech was followed by a deadly rainstorm of lustrous emerald arrows intent upon the single figure of a fleeing man.

Freud spared only a passing glance through his window as Mercedes unleashed the full might of the spirits at her side, essentially unleashing the whole of nature's fury.

Only Phantom would treat something like stealing finery from the best shot in Maple World as if it were a game of keep away.

44. **Peace**

Aaah. Can you see it?

The pure white snow.

Drifting silently to the ground.

Thousands of tiny crystals floating to earth.

Its frozen sheen glows as it reflects the surrounding flickering sunset-orange in beautiful serenity.

The snow, cold to the touch, it soothes the heated soul as it slowly begins to blanket over the embers that had once been the fiery passions of war's rage in silvery tranquility.

Can you feel it?

Maybe someday you will.

When the past no longer haunts you.

When you can finally forgive yourself.

Maybe then you can feel the snowdrops dancing on your skin.

45.** (Heart) Song**

He cannot hear it, the song of the heart. It no longer thrums its rhythms of life, tempo steady and strong.

He can no longer hear it, the song of his own heart, for it cannot beat through the icy case that had frozen around it.

46. **Reflection**

Freud was a person with a profound love of knowledge and a deep appreciation of curiosity not for the sake of the sentiments themselves but rather for what they meant for him because down to the very core of his being, he sincerely believes curiosity in life and _of_ life is what makes life itself worth living. He knows because he had lost that once and all he had wished for was death.

47. **Perfection**

He was meant to be perfection. It was required of him.

Everything he did, everything he said; perfection was in his image, the form he took, in the mind he had and yet he could find no pride in something that had given him so much grief.

Because if he were not perfect, he would gain no approval, no acknowledgement, not a second glance even from the people who had brought him into this world.

If he were not perfect, he did not exist.

It had become almost an obsession and even now, old habits die hard.

But Phantom had taught him to be imperfect again, slowly reminded him what it _meant_ to be imperfect and eventually he learned that… it was okay to be imperfect.

48. **(Everyday) Magic**

Frantic scratching of quill on parchment filled the air as words were written, scribbled out agitatedly, before being rewritten again, the frazzled scratching accompanied by the sound of the hurried rustling of pages from books hectically strewn about the shambolic desk encumbered by a number of scattered papers and lopsided piles of tomes.

Freud let out a vexed breath as he temporarily allowed his left hand to move from its hurried perusal of the material around him to clutch his head however, his eyes, narrowed in intense concentration, never moved away from the lines of thought that poured onto the parchment beneath his hand. That is until a pink rose suddenly presented itself in his line of sight.

Freud blinked in incomprehension at the disruption for several moments. One second, words and then rose?

Ah.

He looked up irately at the grinning face of Phantom, looking as unrepentant as ever at having interrupted his _important _and _time sensitive _work.

Before Freud could berate him and drive him off, Phantom said, "The elephant ran away from the teapot but where does the mouse go when the dancing spoon?"

Caught off guard at the utterly ludicrous, bizarre, and nonsensical statement seemingly out of nowhere, Freud couldn't help a short laugh of incredulousness from escaping his mouth and it must be the nerves because otherwise he would've kicked the man out anyway. Phantom immediately starts ushering him off the chair. He sighed.

Phantom has won again.

49. **Umbrella**

First one then two. Soon, the sound of pattering rain was filling the air in the rhythmic patterns of their sweet lullaby.

But Phantom can find no solace in their cadence, hated their deception in fact. It was a ridiculous sentiment to ascribe to a common weather condition but the rain brought with it memories and the memories in turn brought despair.

"Phantom." The quiet voice wafted from further in the room, calling his attention away from the window.

He turned to meet with a warm smile and a gesture towards the seat next to the man seated beside the open and blazing fireplace.

"Come sit and have some tea. I think this is a good time to catch up with each other, no?"

And he contented himself with listening to the sound of Freud's calming dulcet tones instead.

50. **Party**

They rarely have much cause to celebrate or the time to celebrate for that matter but Phantom would find some excuse or another whether it's commemorating some ridiculous thing or in honor of some obscure event.

It can get exasperating especially if Phantom tries to use it as an excuse to get out of work but Freud knows that it's also his way of making sure the grimness of the situation doesn't start to crush them with the weight of its dismalness and Freud knows that if he had been alone, he'd surely have drowned in the bleakness of it all.

51. **Troubling (Thoughts)**

Phantom was at war with himself.

With each day that passed, little by little, his treacherous heart was starting to beat for someone else. Someone who was not Aria.

He could not accept that. He refused to. It was sheer betrayal to her and it outraged him, made him seethe to the very core even as intelligent oceanic eyes pierced clean through his soul, soft yet confident smiles fluttered his heart, and silent warmth seeped through the very corners of his being.

No, Freud cannot and will not replace Aria in his heart but he can be his second closest. He could take the place of dearest friend. He can permit that. That was acceptable. But he was not going to fall for him. He won't. He can't. He just can't. Ever. _Ever_…

52. **Stirring (of the Wind)**

There was something in the air. He could feel it. He didn't know what news it bodes, whether good or bad but he could sense that something was about to change drastically.

53. **Future**

Boyish features of the past were now sculpted handsomely into the look of a young man.

His short-sleeved red coat and shorts were traded in for an ensemble consisting of a long-sleeved robe similar to his old coat that reached his knees and a pair of long pants tucked into bright scarlet boots. His wand had long been replaced by a more powerful winged staff and he now wore the symbol of a proud legacy with all the fitful rightness of a young prince.

An ever smiling mouth to match the laughing sky blue eyes that still retained their cheer in spite or perhaps because of the many atrocities they witnessed, direct defiance in his will and a show of inner strength just underneath.

An inquisitive, creative, and quick mind had him blazing his own trail in the making of his own unique story as much as it had him overrun his limits and fall embarrassingly short sometimes. But he's beginning to learn and test his limits.

The young man was awkward as was wont of adolescents at that time, even prone to his moments of klutziness but he was passionate and kind, powerfully so but he was also more prudent now, ardor tempered by wisdom forged from the careful remedy of past experience and knowledge.

_This is your successor as he stands before me today, Freud, _Phantom thought, smiling.

54. **(Health and) Healing **

"You were a trite foolish there," Freud sighs as he finishes the diagnostic spells to detect any malicious magic that may have been imbued in the weapon that wounded the thief.

Phantom grins, eyes narrowing into mischievous slits. "Were you worried?" he purrs.

"Not particularly if you have the strength to be your usual self."

"How cold. I'm always thinking of you."

55. **Separation**

There will come a time when it's time to say farewell for everything is transient and nothing is forever.

But partings need not be sad.

Sometimes, they're signs of new beginnings.

And surely, they will find each other again.

56. **Everything (For You) **

He would rip the world to shreds if it was for her.

He would boil the oceans dry, bleed the earth crimson, and give her the stars.

But in the aftermath, he wasn't so sure anymore.

He realizes the loss of a second chance at a life he can no longer grasp anymore and the crushing pain that enlaces that recognition.

Now he wasn't so sure anymore if he will ever want to let that unquenchable, blinding hellfire devour him again.

Now he hesitates and wonders if it was worth it to deny himself everything that could've made him happy all in the name of someone who could never fall back into his arms no matter how many lives he took to equal hers.

Because when all is said and done, the dead will remain dead and no amount of blood will ever change that. But the living is the living and every course of action can change everything.

57.** Slow (Down)**

They needn't rush things.

They needn't be hurried.

Just take a deep breath.

And move one step.

And another.

Then a twirl.

This dance of life.

It will continue.

For as long as it needs to.

For as long as it can.

Now slower.

Slower…

Slo… wer…

Sl… ow… er…

58. **(Heartfelt) Apology **

They had much to apologize for but it's never enough and always too late.

59. **Challenged**

He couldn't stand to watch the suffering of others not because of some lofty sentiment of a noble soul but because when he does, the old wound in his heart starts to ache in symphony. It feels as though he himself was going through that sorrow all over again and he helped if only to relieve his own pain, to prevent himself from reliving that misery.

He knew it was selfish and part of him still struggled with that, struggled to be the man everyone respected, to be the worthy man Afrien had chosen as his Master.

Phantom however had simply looked at him and proclaimed, "You're selfish but that's what makes you the kindest man I know."

And he hadn't even known he had needed to hear those words until the moment Phantom had uttered them.

60. **Exhaustion**

His heartbeat slowed to a standstill, time in suspension as he took in the sight of Freud collapsed motionless on the floor of his study.

"Freud…?"

Time snaps back to him and with a jerk, he is in motion, a flutter of hitched nerves and frantic

Breathing. Freud is breathing.

Phantom releases a small cry of relief, sagging with the weight of his alleviation.

Alive. Freud is alive.

His tension melts away but his body stiffens again and his lips purse, purples narrowing as he deduces the likely reason why Freud was lying on the floor in the first place.

He has a word or two to say about this but first, he'll need to get Freud to bed and later when he wakes up, he'll be sure to let him know exactly what he thinks of this.

61. **Accuracy**

Freud knew him well. Disconcertingly so. He was the legendary Master Thief after all. He shouldn't be so easy to read.

But as he sits in the casual company of one of his closest after a particularly rough night, he can't help but think it nice, relieving to have someone who can just implicitly understand his needs without a word spoken between them.

62. **(Irregular) Orbit**

Time and circumstances didn't permit them to be in each other's company too much whether it was because of missions, work, battles, or because of a recent disagreement that has tension perforating stiflingly forth like miasma.

But they always find their way back to each other eventually.

63. **(Cold) Embrace**

Blank eyes stared dully, unmoved by the writhing figures in front of him rotting alive inside-out as a black flame hungrily gorged on them, bloody chunks of pulsating liquefied flesh slowly detaching from the bodies and falling to the floor in disgusting plops and squelches. They were screaming in an agonized crescendo, the sound gruesome as they cursed and begged at him, hands weakly reaching even as skin and muscle peeled away in spurts of blood to reveal pearly bone but still the boy remained unmoved by the dark magic he had just inadvertently invoked, simply continuing to stare blankly at their slow torture in morbid fascination, enwrapped in apathy's embrace.

64. **Frost**

"No! It wasn't him! It was me! I killed them! Blast it I killed them!"

Sneers and jeers immediately hissed and boomed deafeningly forth as they tried to seize him but he shook them off and turned to the mildly interested if not impassive young boy behind him, quickly dropping to one knee to look him at eye level and grabbing his shoulders in a firm, desperate grip before they could tear him away.

The boy cocked his head and stared quizzically at the despaired look on the man's face, so novel an expression on him.

"Listen here and listen well my boy. This is the last time I'll impart anything to you ever again."

The boy hesitated but mutely nodded, sensing something deeply wrong in the man's countenance.

"This isn't the end. Your life starts now but it's up to you to find it. You'll be alone from here on out but I pray that this won't stop you from being the fine person you could've been." The man's speech was rushed now as they clawed at him, to separate him from his nephew. "Grow to be a kind man. Don't hate for the sake of hating. Don't shun the world for the deeds done to you for it's a truly wonderful place. Don't—"

They've pried him away but still the man fought, expression fierce as he struggled to deliver the last of what he wished to say.

"Don't share the same cause of demise as your parents! Throw away your past! Live! Learn! And love. Do you understand? Promise me! Promise me! Freud!"

A spark of something briefly flickered across clouded frosty eyes and the boy nodded, watching as the mob dragged his uncle away to his execution.

65. **(A) Moment (in Time)**

They needn't count their seconds, the days ever so short the further they march into the uncertain and bloody future for they know the secret of time itself, know the power of memory.

An eternity contained within the ephemeral vessel of a moment.

66.** Dangerous (Territory)**

There were times when Freud found himself treading on thin ice.

It's unavoidable that there would be moments when they would clash. They were simply too close not to and just because Freud understood, it didn't necessarily mean he agreed and sometimes the matter would unwittingly and inevitably crop up. They didn't always necessarily lead to confrontations thick with tension but on the occasions they do, it was a bloody affair especially if either or both of them were feeling particularly recalcitrant, a trait they quickly found to be something they both retained in equally obstinate amounts.

Freud refuses to tip-toe around the issue and let it fester, simply letting it come when it does even if it could lead them to start at each other's throats and Phantom was like a man possessed, fervent and feverish in his pigheaded course.

Still, at the end of the day, they would eventually be quietly drawn together again in some way or another. They don't apologize because neither feels particularly sorry or regretful but they'll silently acknowledge the views and reasons in the air between them and simply let it be, free for their contemplation.

67. **Boundaries**

As close as they were, he knew there were still certain walls between them, invisible strings that drew back and moved Phantom into making boundaries he refuses to cross and by extension, he himself in turn cannot cross out of respect.

It was sorrowful and if he were any less, he would probably yield to doleful sighs.

Sometimes he couldn't help but give way to feelings of jealousy towards the Empress Aria who was still very much the ruler of Phantom's heart even while she was long gone but he knew he cannot fault or revile the good Empress for something that was beyond either of their controls.

So he simply took those boundaries and accepted as they were with his usual resigned grace.

68. **(Unsettling) Revelations**

Aria had wanted him to search for a new happiness all along, to continue his life as he would have, probably waited to for him to find the strength within himself to break the chains of brutish vengeance. She must have been so disappointed…

In the end, he never had to forsake the feelings he held for Freud in fear of betraying her, never had to ignore, to push away… to hurt.

All along… Everything he could've had…

He was such a fool.

69. **Shattered**

Serene like the moonlight, reminiscent of starshine; the night had crashed and shattered into millions of pieces that time, leaving nothing but a black, hollow, empty space of echoes and silence.

How is it that he is reminded of mortality at every turn but never of his own?

70. **(Bitter) Silence**

He tried not to get too close at first because although he would never admit it to anyone, not even to himself, he was scared.

Scared of failure, scared to be hurt so deeply again.

He tried to focus on his anger, his indignation, his airy indifference. But he found that the more he closed himself off, the more the silence that surrounded him started to turn increasingly and bitingly bitter as he wondered if he was to carry on the rest of his life loveless.

71.** (The) True (You)**

Composed and distant azures that lit like sunlight upon glittering expanses of ocean at curiosity awakened.

Witty and sarcastic words playing forth from a teasing mouth.

Wisdom beyond years, intelligence sharper than swords.

Gentle words of song in still, empty airs unheard by stray ears.

Rare lilting laughter that could never be anything but genuine in their delight.

A cool and calculating face to hide for a hurt heart that still found strength to beat for others.

That was who Freud was.

That was the man Phantom loved best.

72. **Pretense**

They were good at playing masks, them two. So good that if they weren't careful, their masks would threaten to meld permanently onto their faces in a gleeful satire of the features above which they rested.

As it stands, it's already too late to be able to take them off. They now live and breathe through those masks, a perpetual fixture as they acted on the grand stage of life, sometimes forgetting themselves in their masquerade. The means they had assumed to safeguard themselves through and from life now act against them, have now taken a life of its own to threaten the integrity and sovereignty of their characters.

But it takes a mask to see a mask and that was exactly what they were in the end. They may dance around each other sometimes but they can see it for what it is, know to look through the gaps and to remind each other of the breathing being beneath.

It's what they have each other for after all.

73. **Patience **

He doesn't speak. He simply sits and waits as he has taken to doing the past week as he sips his tea on his wooden chair in front of the fireplace alive with flames that crackled quietly to itself as it cast the room in its warm glow of flickering orange and yellow.

The soft rhythmic sound of a clock ticking away moment's passing emanated from somewhere in the still room only occasionally interrupted by the clink of china.

Shadows shift in the corner, breaking away as a figure steps forward from within its depths and slumps onto the open chair across Freud, who calmly looks up and watches him in silent regard.

"Why do you even bother?" Phantom whispers, voice hoarse, as wearied as the man who carries the hollowed eyes tired from grief and self-loathing.

Freud doesn't miss a beat as he fills Phantom's teacup with aromatic tea. "Because you are worth it."

Phantom hangs his head and closes his eyes.

74. **Midnight**

Midnight is witching hour, the time of night when all things magical come to life, where the dreams of stars awaken in dance under the moonlight of lucid fantasy, wild in the tint of imaginations' sighs.

Under its glimmering shroud weaves its master of the finest tricks, laughing fingers working the net and strings of the most exquisite enchantments into the fabric of its charming cloak laden in the costume jewelry of wonder and bewilderment for the greatest show in the world.

75. **Shadows**

Well-polished boots clicked down damp cobblestoned streets dimly lit only by the hazy yellowish-orange of the surrounding streetlights and the occasional lit window though the familiar shroud of shadows still clung to the severe countenance of the town, giving it an even grimmer look.

He wrapped the splendid white cloak–at utter odds with the enigmatic atmosphere—more tightly around him to keep the chill of the night at bay as he walked down the road, business fixed firmly at the forefront of his mind.

Magatia.

In the past it was just an insignificant little research town that didn't so much as make a blip in the maps of even Ariant. Now it has risen to quite the impressive reputation.

Freud would've delighted in this place.

Phantom frowned, amethysts narrowing.

This town hides many intrigues, secrets that will never remain so for long, especially not if the Master of Thieves had set his sights on them.

76. **(Summer) Haze**

He was relatively mild and reserved upon meeting but like a fine summer haze that blurs the true appearance of the surroundings, this only holds for those who care to reciprocate cordial treatment. Those who do not extend even courtesy after the first three meets would find themselves on the receiving end of a sharp tongue. Blunt, unhesitant, and completely unrepentant, he is quick to point out hypocrisy with the potential to shred anyone back down from their high horses. In light of all these facts, it's never a good idea to anger the well-mannered Dragon Master.

77. **Memories**

They held too many memories.

Their pasts, they could never escape. Their very beings, recollection's fabrication.

If life were a dream, they would be mere sighs in the throes of reality for they cannot exist separate from the transient past but a mere illusion in the minds of man.

Still. "You learned to live with that and found the will to link it with your future didn't you, Freud?"

78. **Change (in the Weather) **

"Look Mir! It looks like it's going to snow!" Evan cried in boyish excitement to his partner as he pressed against the window to which the dragon gave him an equally giddy squeak. "Sir Phantom!"

"Yes lovely," was the monotonous answer, his temporary guardian having hardly even looked up from the newspaper as he reclined comfortably in his plushy armchair with a cup of hot tea at his side.

"Gee Sir Phantom, you sure don't like any weather outside of sunny," Evan said. Turning back to the window, he watched as the first snowfall of the year began its dazzling decent. "I hope you feel better soon sir."

A humming acknowledgement answered his well wishes.

79.** Illogical**

"This time… for sure… I'll kill them," Phantom murmurs to himself, violets like poison as he made his final preparations for his mission.

Freud looks over and with a carefully neutral expression and tone of voice asks, "And then?"

"Then I move on."

"Which entails?"

Phantom doesn't answer him as he finishes his preparation and moves to leave.

80.** (Only) Human**

"I've been telling you over and over but no! You wouldn't listen! You just wouldn't listen to me!"

"I know."

"Goddesses! Why do you have to be this way? Why must you be so reticent and stubborn in these sorts of matters?"

"…"

"I wish you didn't act as though the world was yours to carry!"

"I know."

"I wish you weren't so irritatingly single-minded!"

"I know."

"I wish you aren't such a damn perfectionist!"

"I know."

"I wish you stopped overthinking things!"

"I know."

"I wish it wasn't you."

"… I know."

81. **(A Place to) Belong**

The world needn't understand them. It was enough if it provided them with a place to belong and they found that in each other.

82. **Advantage**

It was hard to say who would gain an advantage in a full scale fight.

On the one hand, Phantom had ingenuity on his side, was quick to think on his feet, and was rather elusive, making him a very frustrating target.

On the other hand, Freud was highly intelligent, able to assess situations swiftly and accurately and devise complex strategies for them in the blink of an eye and his magic was a force to be reckoned with even without Afrien by his side.

But rather than ponder who had the advantage over whom, it would be easier to simply call them equals.

83. **Breakfast**

Breakfast was often a hit-or-miss affair between them. If Phantom could manage to get Freud to so much as give the slightest indication of an agreement to take a five minute break for food, Freud would often find himself from one moment sitting in front of a simple fare of fruit and coffee to somehow finding himself going the whole length outside in the morning sun with a breakfast picnic and Phantom with that smug self-satisfied look on his face.

But if not, if Freud refuses to give even an inch, that was usually the end of the story but well, it never stopped Phantom from leaving at least a piece of toast or two and a rather lengthy and vociferous note of complaint in his wake.

84. **Echoes**

If he listened closely, he might hear the echoes of loud boisterous laughter amid a cacophony of angry screeches and harsh demands.

He might hear the remnants of a great voice like a gentle rolling thunder over a distant plain as it spoke of life and debated its mechanisms.

But he never had to listen closely to hear chiming mirth filled to the brim with impish glee because it was never too far away in his mind.

85. **Falling**

Phantom knew himself for exactly who he was. Of course, there were some embellishments but when it came down to what truly mattered, he knew exactly but he never thought to truly question what Aria could have seen in him until she was dead.

The first poisonous tendril of doubt had gripped him then. It made him wonder. What was the worth of a man who could not even protect the woman that he loved?

But Freud, so steadfast and resolute, had given him every benefit of a doubt with his silent and unwavering confidence in him and he began to remember who he was again.

When he lost Freud too, he couldn't help but fall and fall and fall…

86.** (Picking Up the) Pieces**

The pieces of glass were sharp on his skin even through his gloves, biting through its protection to form stinging wounds.

His fingers bled as he picked each fragment up.

"Sir Phantom wait!" Evan gasped, reflexively blocking Phantom's hand from reaching the next shard and turning an embarrassed red when his temporary guardian raised a brow at him. "You shouldn't do that to yourself… I'll help you."

87. **Freedom**

He was a person who took no sides, merely a man unto himself.

If the land were to suddenly deny him at every turn, he would probably sprout wings and simply continue on his course as he pleased and Freud found himself admiring the thief for his courage to fly.

88.** Possession**

He was a man who always knows what he wants. Some would call him ambitious and he would happily agree because it was this very ambition, this very _drive _that he was _alive_ and he was _proud._

89. **Twilight**

He doesn't recall much of the battle just before he fell unconscious and what he does is disjointed, the pieces of his memories stuttering here and skipping to another scene there.

He doesn't recall much of their escape from the ruined Temple of Time either but still, there is one instance he could remember clearly, having awoken at some point upon Afrien's back as they soared through the air, the wind chilly as it rushed by him in a great howling force.

What he remembered was the sun bleeding a seething scarlet vibrant as blood into the sky as the insistent night pressed down to extinguish the last of its light and he remembered it because he was suddenly struck with the numbing certainty that

_Ah… this must be the end._

90. **Nowhere (and Nothing)**

He was a no one going nowhere fast with nothing to his name if he even had one at all.

Now he has made a name for himself and he has become a someone but in the end, he still went nowhere and while once upon a time he may have had a _something_, he is now left with nothing even as he held riches beyond anyone's wildest dreams, even as he lived in ample luxury, he now had nothing.

91.** Answers**

Freud wondered if he had grown to be the kind of man his uncle had seen in him, whether he had fulfilled the promise he had made to him all those years ago. Despite his shortcomings, despite all that he was about to leave behind, would he be proud of him? Was this enough? Was this okay? Could he rest now?

He smiled to himself.

He already knew the answers.

92. **Innocence**

Evan was innocent in a way Freud had never been.

While Phantom would've normally asserted that "innocence" was just a nicer way of saying "ignorant" he somehow doesn't want Evan to lose that part of himself because while innocence may be ignorance, to see him broken into something like himself or Freud wasn't something he wished to see Evan become.

Evan grew and grew fiercely and all this time, Phantom waited for the other shoe to drop, for the young Dragon Master to change.

As time stretched into years, Evan exceeded and continued to exceed expectations and this was no different

Evan matured of course but he still somehow managed to keep that part of himself crystal clear, as though all along he had always carried with him translucent certainty of just who he was and his life's purpose, something that couldn't be stained easily, not by the ugliness of the world or by anyone but himself and Phantom could acknowledge that that was a commendable strength of character that neither he nor Freud had ever possessed.

93. **Simplicity**

Sometimes Phantom forgets about life, forgets that there was a world beyond riches and spoils, violence and vengeance and himself, that the sun is bright and warm, the skies are hushed in soft pastels in the morns, and the scent of the lake pleasant as the evening blows in.

But when Freud smiles and shows him _things_, weaves for him _worlds _of _wonder_ out of things that could be as simple as stars at night, he suddenly remembers; the blissful taste of soup and bread from a kindly maiden to help a starving soul, chasing the worn scarf of a young boy who could've been his lifelong brother had he lived, the slight clean smell of the oasis cradled in the evening lulled in peace and tranquility.

Phantom remembers mercy and he is content.

94. **Reality**

The world fell away around him.

Reality, crumbling.

Nothing mattered save the figure of a small boy about to be swallowed whole in the jaws of death right before his eyes.

_Goddesses let me make it, _Phantom begged, wretched desperation like none other before bursting in his chest. _Please…!_

_I have no one left…_

95. **Acceptance**

He has come far and lost much in the way but he thinks he could finally do it, this resolution he has always wished for but has always feared at the same time.

But the truth lies before him now and at last, he finally embraces it.

96. **Lesson**

It was strange, writing down his life lessons, the history and foundation of the Dragon Masters, and condensing every and all secret knowledge of magic he held into this one tome. It was strange in the way it felt akin to building one's own coffin, as though he has already consigned to death. Of course, that was a very real outcome of this venture and it's the very reason he was composing this book in the first place.

Certainly he intends to live to mentor and to see rise the next generation of Dragon Masters. But if he doesn't… It's in his hopes that he has been able to adequately render the sentiments of not only him but of the Dragon Masters and Onyx Dragons past so that the future can understand their hopes and dreams, that this book will find the young buds and guide them through the tempestuous torrents that will be bestowed upon them.

May this book find those confused youths upended into an unknown world full of chaos and help them in those turbulent times.

This Dragon Master's Legacy.

97. **Enthusiasm**

Fascinated sky blues skimmed across the wisdom bound between orange and yellow leather covers balanced across his knees, completely enraptured and even slightly mystified.

"What are you reading?"

Evan gasped and whipped around so fast he almost fell off his seat, putting a hand over his heart to steady its frantic beating upon catching sight of the immensely amused face of his guardian.

"Sir Phantom!" he griped before sighing and turning back to the ancient yellowed pages. "I'm just reading hopes and dreams."

His hand brushes across the tome gently, respectfully, feeling the slightly course texture of the paper kept carefully smooth and the creases of worn leather underneath his fingertips and Evan's expression softens.

"This person must have had me in mind all the time when he wrote it. It's easy to tell because it's so carefully written and everything just speaks to me, answers all my questions as though I was actually speaking to him about my doubts. Even if I'm feeling nervous about my future and what's going to happen, somehow when I read this, I always feel so reassured…"

Evan's face tightens in determination, a stubborn look of seriousness on his face as he says, "Me and Mir will make his wish come true. Afrien's and the Dragon Masters before us too. We'll make them proud."

Phantom's mouth curves in a slight smile as he ruffles the young boy's chestnut hair.

98. **Game**

"You know, if you keep going on like this, you'll end up needing a pair of glasses."

"I suppose so."

"It'll complete your image of a shut-away bookworm."

"I think I'd like being a shut-away bookworm if it means being able to get away from you."

"Nothing can keep me away from you and I won't keep away until I win you over from your marriage with work."

"Then you'll find that you're going to have a hard time of it because I'm perfectly happy in my relationship."

"Then I suppose I'll have to whisk you away then! I'm a rather jealous man after all. I can't bear having your attention on anyone but me."

"I rather think that's your narcissism talking Phantom."

"Ah but if it's not you it's meaningless. Come, let us elope and I promise you the sweetest happiness you will ever experience in your life."

A laugh.

"Nice try Phantom."

99. **Friendship **

Before anything else, before they were scholar and thief, Dragon Master and Master Thief, partners, comrades, or whatever it was that was between them, they were and are first and foremost friends. It was simply a fact, obvious as the air they breathed and as immortal as time itself. That would never change, not for anything.

Phantom's hand was as tight as a promise as it held onto Freud's. Both their faces were grim and weary, their eyes hard. The final battle loomed over them so full that it felt wont to burst over their heads at any moment.

"Phantom," Freud spoke, quiet yet stern.

Phantom tipped his head.

Words were a hassle.

They already knew.

100. **Endings**

They stood on the crest of the hill, weather eternally peaceful, skies infinitely blue, the rainbow of pastel flowers forever in bloom; everlasting, just like the man who rested before them.

It was willowy and beauteous Mercedes who stepped beside him and rested a delicate but firm hand on his shoulder and Evan turned to look at her.

Her petal pink lips were stretched into a thin smile, long lashes lowered sadly over mourning sapphires as they gazed contemplatively up at him, lovely features softened in sorrowful acceptance.

"It is for the best, I think," Mercedes murmured quietly, her message almost taken away from her along with the wind as it rushed over the hill in a great whisper and into the endless lands beyond. "It seems… the day the Empress Aria died he was an incomplete man and the moment Freud had passed away, Phantom was never again meant to remain in this world for long as his heart had already followed them up into the heavens."

"It is… admirable that he has made it so far nonetheless. In that regard I can at least… respect him," Luminous admitted, unreadable heterochromatic eyes fixed upon the pure white stone in front them decorated with all manners of flowers and finery, including the "silly" hat the thief had almost always worn that Evan nostalgically remembered constantly trying to steal from him when he was younger; a final extravagant farewell for an extravagant man.

Aran remained solemnly silent but made an intricate pattern of hand gestures as a show of respect.

Evan nodded slowly, eyes sliding back in front of him where the single stone silently sat, as if patiently waiting for him to speak.

Mir's large head was bowed beside him, eyes previously hidden behind scaly lids were now open to reveal a single golden iris that fixed itself contemplatively first upon Evan before flickering over towards their late mentor's grave.

Evan nodded in silent communication with his partner and knelt slowly upon the ground.

"Master Phantom…"

He wet his dry and cracked lips, paused, then continued again, the words flowing as they pleased from his mind.

"Thank you for looking after Mir and I. Without your guidance, we wouldn't have made it through this alive. We wouldn't have grown up to be who we are today. Thank you for saving Maple World once again even though I know you could've turned your back on it many times. Thank you for staying with us until the end and thank you for… for…"

Evan's mouth moved soundlessly, as though it was perplexed by the utter lack of ability to articulate any of what he truly felt before he shook it off and said instead, "I don't know how you felt about all this; you never tell me or Mir anything and I don't know if you found enjoyment in hanging around a bunch of brats like us." Evan's lips curved into a slight smile. "But… I hope you finally found the happiness you were looking for."

At his last words, Mir arched his neck and released a trumpeting bellow, the sound seeming to reach even the far, unseen spaces beyond.

* * *

And that's it. I actually drew a picture of how I envision Evan would look like as an adolescent so feel free to take a look at it in Deviantart: Evan in Adolescence by snowyskyes.

Thanks for reading!


	2. A Hundred Fragments and a Song

Aaaand here's the version with the music. Enjoy!

* * *

1. **Introduction / [Fly to the Moon]**

Their first meeting was anything but conventional. The person who came to him wasn't exactly conventional either for that matter. But despite the suddenness and randomness of it all, their introduction flowed surprisingly smoothly, words and actions gliding in near perfect harmony as if they had rehearsed for this meeting all their lives and Freud couldn't help but wonder what the future had in store for them.

2. **Complicated **

Their relationship wasn't complex exactly so much as it is deep although it could easily be mistaken for such. Phantom was a man caught in the chains of time and Freud was the pragmatist who could only ever be grounded in the present. By any means, they shouldn't be seeing eye-to-eye. But it wasn't as simple as that.

It was the layers upon layers of unspoken mutual knowledge of the meaning of "loss," "loneliness," "guilt," and "outcast" more powerful than differences in experience could ever overcome.

And they both understood that.

3. **(Making) History / [Knight's Stronghold]**

"Tonight, we're making history," Phantom proclaimed, arms crossed over his chest, sheer white cape billowing behind him as dramatic as the man who wore it, chin tilted slightly upward as he stood at the helm of his magnificent ship, the Lumiere.

Freud's eyes flickered briefly over towards him before fixating themselves once again at the ominous dark shapes lingering in the distance sprawled like a disease amidst the sickly reddish-purple clouds in the distance, a ghost of a smirk playing the edges of his lips.

"We were making history even long before."

4. **Rivalry / [Serenity]**

"This rivalry is getting ridiculous," Freud sighed as he watched Luminous stalk away for the nth time.

Phantom gave a noncommittal shrug but didn't so much as attempt to justify himself.

He didn't have to either because Freud already knew it wasn't merely a disagreement of temperament and mentalities but something more discreet, something more fundamental and much more raw than what appeared on the surface. And there was nothing Freud could do about it.

5. **Unbreakable**

No one was unbreakable, least of all him. But he doesn't like to remember that because if he were breakable, it meant he was hurting and he didn't want to remember that because it'll cripple him and he so _hated _feeling weak. He never wanted to feel weak ever again. He already had a lifetime of that.

But no one was unbreakable, least of all him and when it all came down to it, he still needed someone he could break in front of every once in a while.

6. **Obsession / [Kritias: Hekaton]**

Avid flames of Hell, unquenchable and blazing in the inferno of his incensed passion that roared and wreaked a path of destruction, the feverish haze of his craze a most devilish curtain over judgment that devoured his sanity, wild and frightful but deliriously rapturous and manic.

And he would have it no other way.

7. **Eternity / [Wind and Flower]**

"Wouldn't it be nice," Phantom murmured as he reached up from where he lay in the shadowed grass under a great tree, head nestled comfortably on Freud's lap, and played with the glinting aquamarine brooch beneath the Dragon Master's collar. "If we could stay like this forever?"

Freud's lips twitched in amusement.

"I certainly hope not because if that were the case, I would have to deal with numb legs until the end of time."

Phantom laughed.

8. **Gateway **

The gateway to rapture had opened once.

But it had been forced to lock.

The gateway to rapture had opened twice.

But he did not answer its call.

The gateway to rapture has since closed.

He'll never see it open again.

9. **Death / [Colossus: The Colossal Heart]**

Death was no stranger to him. He's seen it many times, a constant companion like a perpetual shroud over his head.

People who could no longer sustain themselves on the streets. People who had given up. People who got in way over their heads. Sometimes, death was dealt by his very own hands and sometimes he was the one standing before death's judgment.

Death was no stranger. He's seen hundreds die before his indifferent eyes.

Life and death, death and life. It was simply the course of nature.

But even so… even so...

How could the deaths of just two people shatter him so completely?

10.** Opportunities**

Freud wasn't opportunistic.

If he were, he would've seized and even reveled in what his family had attempted to force onto him for ages as a prodigy rarely born even once in a century.

No, he wouldn't describe himself as opportunistic but he was prudent and learning what he could of Phantom was as much to satisfy his scientifically-born curiosity as it was out of cautiousness which was what had led him to take every chance presented before him in order to understand the thief.

Who knew that he would come to understand universes within this one man.

11. **Thirty-three (Percent) / [Nova Sanctum]**

Six percent and counting.

Freud groaned and winced at his stiff neck but he daren't rub the sore spot lest he potentially ruin a whole day's work just getting the experiment to this point.

Twelve percent and counting.

"Freud," Phantom drawled from somewhere on the other side of his lab but he ignored it, attentive as he was to what was in front of him.

Nineteen percent and counting.

He felt a warm gloved hand brush the back of his neck before nimble fingers worked to expertly unknot the muscle, smooth silk slipping across his skin and Freud sighed in relief.

"Thank you," he murmured.

Twenty-four percent and counting.

Freud knew Phantom was grinning and his lips slanted gently downward in bafflement even as he continued to concentrate on the task at hand.

"What?"

Twenty-nine percent and counting.

"Nothing."

Thirty-three percent and counting.

12. **Wrong**

It wasn't often that he was wrong. At least, on matters of logic and science but on matters of the ever fluctuating and incalculable human heart and mind and being human himself destined to err constantly in life, even he would fall short.

In this case, he had seriously underestimated the depths of Phantom's feelings for revenge, the lengths he would go in pursuit of Orchid and Lotus even in as desperate an hour as now.

And it left him feeling strangely cold.

13. **Running **

Everything for the sake of distraction, to stall it for as long as possible as though the heat of his rage could somehow erase the thoughts heavy in his mind and purge the guilty weight in his heart.

He had faced down death and danger alike, getting along by the skin of his teeth, stared down immensely powerful opponents as they thundered down their full might to crush him and yet, all he could do here was run, duck his head beneath his hands and whimper like a coward and run and because of that, he was going to repeat his mistake again.

They didn't deserve that. He knew it. But that only made him run harder but it seemed the more he ran, the more ensnared he became and it was only a matter of time before he'll have no choice but to be forced to stare down the pitch black gaping jaws of all his combined dread.

14. **Judgment**

If there was something he was more fearful of than the judgment of Heaven itself, it was the judgment they would have wrought upon him for what he did had they still been alive.

15. **Solace / [Elfwood]**

"What's wrong?" asked a soft chuckling voice, subtle vibrations rumbling against him.

Freud knit his brows and grumbled, turning to press his face against solid warmth, letting himself become enwrapped in that same warmth like a protective cocoon.

"Never mind," Freud managed to mumble out, already drifting back into the recesses of sleep even as the twisted remnants of his previous dream started to melt back into the crevices of nothingness.

16. **Excuses / [Peaceful Woods]**

Freud raised a brow.

It was a warning and Phantom knew it, his sputtering taking on a more frantic edge to explain away why this was not the first, the second, the third, or even the _fourth _time that same week he had come back to find his house in a mess with an equally tussled-looking Luminous next to the thief staring downward onto the ground, pale features flushed red in embarrassment and shame.

"Don't just stand there. Help me out," Phantom hissed, jabbing his partner-in-crime none too gently in the ribs with his elbow.

Luminous grunted, shooting a venomous glare full of his ire at his detested rival before turning guilty eyes to Freud.

"I am… sincerely sorry, Freud. My humblest of apologies. I don't… I don't quite know…"

"Thank you for the sentiment, Luminous but that doesn't tell me why both of you decided to turn my house into your own personal battleground for the _fifth_ time," Freud said, his voice dropping an octave lower at the end into a dark and foreboding tone.

Both men gulped.

17. **Vengeance**

He remembered once upon a time when he cursed the world and spat at his fate, when he had snarled at the chains that bound him, for the life he had not chosen to be given.

But all he could do in the end was grit his teeth and become all but mute, hoping his passive silence, indifferent words, and jaded eyes would carry him through until the termination of his life.

His hatred and ire had bubbled out from the foreright of his seething heart and spilled over to the rest of his soul to taint it black, black, black.

He had managed to overcome this troubling period of time of his life but it was happening again right in front of his eyes, in liquid violet that is all but gone from this world, all light consumed and leaving only spiraling darkness behind.

18. **Love**

It was love that moved him into vengeance.

It was love that had led to his downfall.

It was love that he realized too late.

It was love that birthed his regrets.

19. **Tears**

Crystalline tears of a kind rarely seen, pure in their honesty yet sad in the way each one carried with them a fragment of an inner agony that twisted at his throbbing heartstrings but still helpless to do anything except catch them as they fell and turn them into stars.

20. **Inspiration / [Be Born Zero]**

The space of the musty study was silent save for the quiet shuffling of papers and the scratching of a single quill as it etched its black marks across the pages beneath its inked tip.

A soft exhale of breath and an indulgent smile as amused marine blue eyes finally looked up.

"Is there something the matter that you keep staring at me in such a way?"

Phantom grinned in turn, full of mischief and playful flirtatiousness that belie the genuine affection underneath.

"Why should there be something wrong for me to stare at you? You are my inspiration after all."

21. **Never (Again) / [The Photo]**

His world was full of doubts, his failures keep stacking too high to see anymore, too substantial to ignore or carry.

Should he ever love again? Should he even care anymore? Could he even protect anything?

He didn't think so but as young, bright sky blues full of childhood and spring blinked at him in idolizing adoration and admiration, he knew he had no choice. He had unwittingly placed himself in this position. He would have to.

He never wanted to fall short again. There was too much to lose if he did. Because he won't be able to survive a third heartbreak.

22. **Planet **

The world perhaps wasn't as big a place as many had thought, Freud contemplated. Because within each person and around every single individual was a planet all on its own made up of the ones that surrounded them.

Each person was their own distinct planet but they still shared their own world with others in a way that was both distant yet linked in a fundamentally intrinsic way.

And if anyone could be lucky enough, they might even find someone who shared the same exact world.

23. **Failure**

Freud wasn't used to failure. His whole life had always been an ongoing train of successes one after another. He may encounter hiccups here and there but he had always, always succeeded in the end and that was all that really mattered to him.

But this time, he wasn't so sure the end results mattered as much as the discrepancies in his journey there because although they succeeded in their quest against the Black Mage, he will not live to see the peace that can finally come to fruit. He'll make Phantom suffer for his shortcoming.

And that was perhaps the greatest failure he could ever make.

24. **Rebirth / [Crystal Cave]**

From the ashes of the phoenix is born a new legacy, a clean slate, blank and free for the new generation to engrave their own legends and tales.

_Freud, _Phantom prayed. _Watch over your young successor._

25. **Breaking (Away) / [Rien Village]**

It wasn't easy to amend his old ways.

Half the time he would find himself accidentally sneaking around people, automatically and unconsciously evaluating the worth of any finery he caught sight of, and if he accidentally found a valuable or two nestled comfortably on his persons? Whoops.

Of course, if Freud ever caught him at it, he'd receive a tongue-lashing and an earful but hey, at least he didn't try to hail a storm of arrows at him.

26. **Forever (And a Day) / [Mirror World: Temple of Time]**

He was a man of great patience when it came to such matters and Phantom so obviously needed that.

He could appreciate Phantom because he was so complex but it was also this same complexity that has the thief ensnared.

That's alright though.

He had confidence that there will come a time when Phantom will be able to untangle himself one knot at a time. He may not be able to completely free himself but it will be enough.

He'll wait forever and a day for that moment to come.

27. **Lost (and Found) / [Ellinel: The Fairy Forest]**

"What are you thinking of?" Phantom asked, chuckling as he tapped at Freud's temple.

Freud huffed but nonetheless smiled, the tilt of his lips gentle and subdued, his eyes never leaving the starry dome above them. "Nothing of terrible importance."

"Really?" Phantom turned his attention back at the night sky hanging over their heads. "With the way you do that, I'm afraid that someday, you'll start to drift from me, far away to a place I can't follow."

"I could say the same for you," Freud hummed back. "But you found me and I found you." He looked over to Phantom, marine blues twinkling in starlight. "I suppose we'll just have to be each other's anchors."

Phantom grinned. "I like that."

28. **Light / [Sleepywood]**

The room was dark save for the light from a single candle, its flickering orange flame nestled behind its protective glass confines.

Word after word poured forth from his mind and onto the parchment across which his quill danced.

In this small sphere of candlelight was his quiet little world, undisturbed and silent as he worked; the sole occupant of this tiny, lonely little place.

A warm hand encircles his wrist, stopping his hand midsentence and Freud sighs, craning his neck up to the sight of a cheerily grinning Phantom.

"Bedtime," he says simply and forcibly ushers a complaining Freud away from his shimmering spot of candlelight.

29. **Dark / [Ghost Ship]**

All the world was razed in Hellfire but Phantom was cold.

Behold for yonder lay the person he had thought he'd never allow to fall.

All the world was ablaze in Hellfire but it was still oh so dark.

30. **Faith **

He never believed in anything like destiny or fate or even luck. The years of his life had made sure to beat that out of his embittered body.

The only thing he ever trusted and believed in was his own self and his own skills.

But somehow, even he managed to betray himself in the end.

31. **Colors**

Vibrant scarlet streaked brilliantly across obsidian black, violets and blues shimmering and twisting in violent zigzags splattered with innocent white and serene gold.

Phantom scrunched his face at the canvas in front of him and wondered what the heck he had just splashed onto it before giving up and deciding that what infinitesimal considerations he may have for a future career as an artist was shot and maybe he should just stick to his occupation as a thief.

"If I had my doubts before, it's clear now. You are definitely not suited for art. You should just stick with the one thing you're actually half decent at and call it a day hm?"

Phantom turned behind him and glared sullenly at his butler.

He knew that already! Gaston didn't need to say it out loud!

32. **Exploration **

Everything was in exploration of one another; their limits, their irks, their quirks, their sentiments, their muses, their everything.

It was always a continual process but they find the journey nonetheless somehow contenting.

33. **Seeing (Red)**

When he had first heard of Evan and his little stunt with the Black Wings that besmirched the title, the legacy, and all that Freud had so painstakingly built, he saw _red._

He took the boy in and vowed to set him straight.

But afterwards, he started seeing red everywhere, almost quite literally.

Red was in Evan's coat and he had to curse how startlingly he resembled Freud that he began to see red robes everywhere.

34. **Shades (of Gray) / [Nasty Liar]**

The world was made of shades of gray, always featureless, always unclear.

Lifeless.

Meaningless.

Nothingness.

This was the world he lived in for many, many years.

His uncle was his spot of color in his life, a brave, defiant man who strove to be a Dark Knight at a time when it was frowned upon.

Afrien was his first splash of color, a majestic gold and thoughtful black, he had opened his eyes to the world he had long shuttered away.

Phantom was next to make his mark but he was by far a more peculiar case not nearly so straightforward and much more complicated, just like the man himself.

He was always neither and both at once, opaque and clear.

He wasn't exactly deplorable but he wasn't exactly an exemplary model of a human being either. There were times when he absolutely shone for the wrong reasons while there were other times when he was the lowest of the low for the right ones.

He was more… something in between. Phantom was…

Gray.

35. **Forgotten**

It sucked to be forgotten. He had rather enjoyed his infamy. Without his background as a notorious thief behind him anymore, he only hoped people won't start calling him a hero when he fought the Black Mage once more because he was no gallant hero and a protector even less so.

36. **Dreamer / [Repentance]**

Neither were dreamers, Phantom too disillusioned and Freud too realistic.

Still, they often found themselves hoping and imagining as they contemplated the ephemeral future before them as they conversed.

37. **Mist**

The early morning mist shrouded the surrounding greenery as they strolled through quiet forests in the peaceful eves of morning.

The world was at standstill, peace in suspension in which they could pretend that everything was all right.

38. **Burning**

Afrien's flames were searing, scorching enough to burn or melt anything that so much as surrounds it yet through careful arcane draconian magic, the surrounding fauna and flora remained relatively unscathed save the scorch marks on the ground as he meted out his punishment at the yelping thief who dared steal his Master away as Phantom nimbly twisted this way and that like a dancing leaf before the torrents of fire.

Freud simply skipped another stone and waited for the debacle to end.

39. **(Out of )Time / [Kamuna]**

He could almost feel it, the silky smooth sand slipping through his fingers as it slides down an invisible hourglass counting down towards his end.

He knows it and he wants to resist it but he had never been one to fight against inevitability. That had always been more Phantom's forte.

It was too late now.

He was out of time.

40. **Knowing (How)**

People were rarely as they seemed at first glance, much less them. They're simply harder to discern than the average person.

But that didn't mean Phantom lacked virtue any more than Freud lacked flaws.

It's only a matter of knowing how to bring them out that eludes most.

41. **(Fork in the) Road / [Yggdrasil Prayer]**

One path forward, its end unseen; one path backwards choked of all life by overgrown vines of thorns and musty gloom; two branching off the middle ahead both equally unclear; one to the right enshrouded in fog, mysterious and captivating all at once; one to the left, crooked and ruined as the surrounding gnarled forest twisted in unhinged contempt full of sneers and smirks.

Six paths.

Two people.

One decision.

42. **Start**

It started with mutual curiosity.

Curiosity led to learning.

Learning bloomed into realization.

Realization turned into understanding.

Understanding grew into acceptance.

Acceptance into support.

Support into close friendship.

Close friendship into

43. **(Nature's) Fury / [Cava Bien]**

"PHANTOM!"

The enraged screech was followed by a deadly rainstorm of lustrous emerald arrows intent upon the single figure of a fleeing man.

Freud spared only a passing glance through his window as Mercedes unleashed the full might of the spirits at her side, essentially unleashing the whole of nature's fury.

Only Phantom would treat something like stealing finery from the best shot in Maple World as if it were a game of keep away.

44. ** Peace / [Ellin Forest]**

Aaah. Can you see it?

The pure white snow.

Drifting silently to the ground.

Thousands of tiny crystals floating to earth.

Its frozen sheen glows as it reflects the surrounding flickering sunset-orange in beautiful serenity.

The snow, cold to the touch, it soothes the heated soul as it slowly begins to blanket over the embers that had once been the fiery passions of war's rage in silvery tranquility.

Can you feel it?

Maybe someday you will.

When the past no longer haunts you.

When you can finally forgive yourself.

Maybe then you can feel the snowdrops dancing on your skin.

45. **(Heart) Song**

He cannot hear it, the song of the heart. It no longer thrums its rhythms of life, tempo steady and strong.

He can no longer hear it, the song of his own heart, for it cannot beat through the icy case that had frozen around it.

46. **Reflection / [Moonlight Shadow]**

Freud was a person with a profound love of knowledge and a deep appreciation of curiosity not for the sake of the sentiments themselves but rather for what they meant for him because down to the very core of his being, he sincerely believes curiosity in life and _of_ life is what makes life itself worth living. He knows because he had lost that once and all he had wished for was death.

47. **Perfection / [Low Grade Ore (Original Version)]**

He was meant to be perfection. It was required of him.

Everything he did, everything he said; perfection was in his image, the form he took, in the mind he had and yet he could find no pride in something that had given him so much grief.

Because if he were not perfect, he would gain no approval, no acknowledgement, not a second glance even from the people who had brought him into this world.

If he were not perfect, he did not exist.

It had become almost an obsession and even now, old habits die hard.

But Phantom had taught him to be imperfect again, slowly reminded him what it _meant_ to be imperfect and eventually he learned that… it was okay to be imperfect.

48. **(Everyday) Magic / [Come With Me]**

Frantic scratching of quill on parchment filled the air as words were written, scribbled out agitatedly, before being rewritten again, the frazzled scratching accompanied by the sound of the hurried rustling of pages from books hectically strewn about the shambolic desk encumbered by a number of scattered papers and lopsided piles of tomes.

Freud let out a vexed breath as he temporarily allowed his left hand to move from its hurried perusal of the material around him to clutch his head however, his eyes, narrowed in intense concentration, never moved away from the lines of thought that poured onto the parchment beneath his hand. That is until a pink rose suddenly presented itself in his line of sight.

Freud blinked in incomprehension at the disruption for several moments. One second, words and then rose?

Ah.

He looked up irately at the grinning face of Phantom, looking as unrepentant as ever at having interrupted his _important _and _time sensitive _work.

Before Freud could berate him and drive him off, Phantom said, "The elephant ran away from the teapot but where does the mouse go when the dancing spoon?"

Caught off guard at the utterly ludicrous, bizarre, and nonsensical statement seemingly out of nowhere, Freud couldn't help a short laugh of incredulousness from escaping his mouth and it must be the nerves because otherwise he would've kicked the man out anyway. Phantom immediately starts ushering him off the chair. He sighed.

Phantom has won again.

49. **Umbrella / [Poison Forest (Alternate Version)]**

First one then two. Soon, the sound of pattering rain was filling the air in the rhythmic patterns of their sweet lullaby.

But Phantom can find no solace in their cadence, hated their deception in fact. It was a ridiculous sentiment to ascribe to a common weather condition but the rain brought with it memories and the memories in turn brought despair.

"Phantom." The quiet voice wafted from further in the room, calling his attention away from the window.

He turned to meet with a warm smile and a gesture towards the seat next to the man seated beside the open and blazing fireplace.

"Come sit and have some tea. I think this is a good time to catch up with each other, no?"

And he contented himself with listening to the sound of Freud's calming dulcet tones instead.

50. **Party**

They rarely have much cause to celebrate or the time to celebrate for that matter but Phantom would find some excuse or another whether it's commemorating some ridiculous thing or in honor of some obscure event.

It can get exasperating especially if Phantom tries to use it as an excuse to get out of work but Freud knows that it's also his way of making sure the grimness of the situation doesn't start to crush them with the weight of its dismalness and Freud knows that if he had been alone, he'd surely have drowned in the bleakness of it all.

51. **Troubling (Thoughts) / [Destruction Town]**

Phantom was at war with himself.

With each day that passed, little by little, his treacherous heart was starting to beat for someone else. Someone who was not Aria.

He could not accept that. He refused to. It was sheer betrayal to her and it outraged him, made him seethe to the very core even as intelligent oceanic eyes pierced clean through his soul, soft yet confident smiles fluttered his heart, and silent warmth seeped through the very corners of his being.

No, Freud cannot and will not replace Aria in his heart but he can be his second closest. He could take the place of dearest friend. He can permit that. That was acceptable. But he was not going to fall for him. He won't. He can't. He just can't. Ever. _Ever_…

52. **Stirring (of the Wind) / [Retake]**

There was something in the air. He could feel it. He didn't know what news it bodes, whether good or bad but he could sense that something was about to change drastically.

53. **Future / [Dragon Dream]**

Boyish features of the past were now sculpted handsomely into the look of a young man.

His short-sleeved red coat and shorts were traded in for an ensemble consisting of a long-sleeved robe similar to his old coat that reached his knees and a pair of long pants tucked into bright scarlet boots. His wand had long been replaced by a more powerful winged staff and he now wore the symbol of a proud legacy with all the fitful rightness of a young prince.

An ever smiling mouth to match the laughing sky blue eyes that still retained their cheer in spite or perhaps because of the many atrocities they witnessed, direct defiance in his will and a show of inner strength just underneath.

An inquisitive, creative, and quick mind had him blazing his own trail in the making of his own unique story as much as it had him overrun his limits and fall embarrassingly short sometimes. But he's beginning to learn and test his limits.

The young man was awkward as was wont of adolescents at that time, even prone to his moments of klutziness but he was passionate and kind, powerfully so but he was also more prudent now, ardor tempered by wisdom forged from the careful remedy of past experience and knowledge.

_This is your successor as he stands before me today, Freud, _Phantom thought, smiling.

54. **(Health and) Healing / [Pantheon]**

"You were a trite foolish there," Freud sighs as he finishes the diagnostic spells to detect any malicious magic that may have been imbued in the weapon that wounded the thief.

Phantom grins, eyes narrowing into mischievous slits. "Were you worried?" he purrs.

"Not particularly if you have the strength to be your usual self."

"How cold. I'm always thinking of you."

55. **Separation / [Wherever You Are]**

There will come a time when it's time to say farewell for everything is transient and nothing is forever.

But partings need not be sad.

Sometimes, they're signs of new beginnings.

And surely, they will find each other again.

56. **Everything (For You) / [In Ruin in Vain]**

He would rip the world to shreds if it was for her.

He would boil the oceans dry, bleed the earth crimson, and give her the stars.

But in the aftermath, he wasn't so sure anymore.

He realizes the loss of a second chance at a life he can no longer grasp anymore and the crushing pain that enlaces that recognition.

Now he wasn't so sure anymore if he will ever want to let that unquenchable, blinding hellfire devour him again.

Now he hesitates and wonders if it was worth it to deny himself everything that could've made him happy all in the name of someone who could never fall back into his arms no matter how many lives he took to equal hers.

Because when all is said and done, the dead will remain dead and no amount of blood will ever change that. But the living is the living and every course of action can change everything.

57. **Slow (Down)**

They needn't rush things.

They needn't be hurried.

Just take a deep breath.

And move one step.

And another.

Then a twirl.

This dance of life.

It will continue.

For as long as it needs to.

For as long as it can.

Now slower.

Slower…

Slo… wer…

Sl… ow… er…

58. **(Heartfelt) Apology / [Flower in Blue]**

They had much to apologize for but it's never enough and always too late.

59. **Challenged**

He couldn't stand to watch the suffering of others not because of some lofty sentiment of a noble soul but because when he does, the old wound in his heart starts to ache in symphony. It feels as though he himself was going through that sorrow all over again and he helped if only to relieve his own pain, to prevent himself from reliving that misery.

He knew it was selfish and part of him still struggled with that, struggled to be the man everyone respected, to be the worthy man Afrien had chosen as his Master.

Phantom however had simply looked at him and proclaimed, "You're selfish but that's what makes you the kindest man I know."

And he hadn't even known he had needed to hear those words until the moment Phantom had uttered them.

60. **Exhaustion**

His heartbeat slowed to a standstill, time in suspension as he took in the sight of Freud collapsed motionless on the floor of his study.

"Freud…?"

Time snaps back to him and with a jerk, he is in motion, a flutter of hitched nerves and frantic

Breathing. Freud is breathing.

Phantom releases a small cry of relief, sagging with the weight of his alleviation.

Alive. Freud is alive.

His tension melts away but his body stiffens again and his lips purse, purples narrowing as he deduces the likely reason why Freud was lying on the floor in the first place.

He has a word or two to say about this but first, he'll need to get Freud to bed and later when he wakes up, he'll be sure to let him know exactly what he thinks of this.

61. **Accuracy**

Freud knew him well. Disconcertingly so. He was the legendary Master Thief after all. He shouldn't be so easy to read.

But as he sits in the casual company of one of his closest after a particularly rough night, he can't help but think it nice, relieving to have someone who can just implicitly understand his needs without a word spoken between them.

62. **(Irregular) Orbit**

Time and circumstances didn't permit them to be in each other's company too much whether it was because of missions, work, battles, or because of a recent disagreement that has tension perforating stiflingly forth like miasma.

But they always find their way back to each other eventually.

63. **(Cold) Embrace / [Poison Forest]**

Blank eyes stared dully, unmoved by the writhing figures in front of him rotting alive inside-out as a black flame hungrily gorged on them, bloody chunks of pulsating liquefied flesh slowly detaching from the bodies and falling to the floor in disgusting plops and squelches. They were screaming in an agonized crescendo, the sound gruesome as they cursed and begged at him, hands weakly reaching even as skin and muscle peeled away in spurts of blood to reveal pearly bone but still the boy remained unmoved by the dark magic he had just inadvertently invoked, simply continuing to stare blankly at their slow torture in morbid fascination, enwrapped in apathy's embrace.

64. **Frost / [Dimensional Library: The Stormy Forest]**

"No! It wasn't him! It was me! I killed them! Blast it I killed them!"

Sneers and jeers immediately hissed and boomed deafeningly forth as they tried to seize him but he shook them off and turned to the mildly interested if not impassive young boy behind him, quickly dropping to one knee to look him at eye level and grabbing his shoulders in a firm, desperate grip before they could tear him away.

The boy cocked his head and stared quizzically at the despaired look on the man's face, so novel an expression on him.

"Listen here and listen well my boy. This is the last time I'll impart anything to you ever again."

The boy hesitated but mutely nodded, sensing something deeply wrong in the man's countenance.

"This isn't the end. Your life starts now but it's up to you to find it. You'll be alone from here on out but I pray that this won't stop you from being the fine person you could've been." The man's speech was rushed now as they clawed at him, to separate him from his nephew. "Grow to be a kind man. Don't hate for the sake of hating. Don't shun the world for the deeds done to you for it's a truly wonderful place. Don't—"

They've pried him away but still the man fought, expression fierce as he struggled to deliver the last of what he wished to say.

"Don't share the same cause of demise as your parents! Throw away your past! Live! Learn! And love. Do you understand? Promise me! Promise me! Freud!"

A spark of something briefly flickered across clouded frosty eyes and the boy nodded, watching as the mob dragged his uncle away to his execution.

65. **(A) Moment (in Time)**

They needn't count their seconds, the days ever so short the further they march into the uncertain and bloody future for they know the secret of time itself, know the power of memory.

An eternity contained within the ephemeral vessel of a moment.

66. **Dangerous (Territory) / [Crimson Tower]**

There were times when Freud found himself treading on thin ice.

It's unavoidable that there would be moments when they would clash. They were simply too close not to and just because Freud understood, it didn't necessarily mean he agreed and sometimes the matter would unwittingly and inevitably crop up. They didn't always necessarily lead to confrontations thick with tension but on the occasions they do, it was a bloody affair especially if either or both of them were feeling particularly recalcitrant, a trait they quickly found to be something they both retained in equally obstinate amounts.

Freud refuses to tip-toe around the issue and let it fester, simply letting it come when it does even if it could lead them to start at each other's throats and Phantom was like a man possessed, fervent and feverish in his pigheaded course.

Still, at the end of the day, they would eventually be quietly drawn together again in some way or another. They don't apologize because neither feels particularly sorry or regretful but they'll silently acknowledge the views and reasons in the air between them and simply let it be, free for their contemplation.

67. **Boundaries / [Decisive Battle]**

As close as they were, he knew there were still certain walls between them, invisible strings that drew back and moved Phantom into making boundaries he refuses to cross and by extension, he himself in turn cannot cross out of respect.

It was sorrowful and if he were any less, he would probably yield to doleful sighs.

Sometimes he couldn't help but give way to feelings of jealousy towards the Empress Aria who was still very much the ruler of Phantom's heart even while she was long gone but he knew he cannot fault or revile the good Empress for something that was beyond either of their controls.

So he simply took those boundaries and accepted as they were with his usual resigned grace.

68. **(Unsettling) Revelations / [Forgetfulness]**

Aria had wanted him to search for a new happiness all along, to continue his life as he would have, probably waited to for him to find the strength within himself to break the chains of brutish vengeance. She must have been so disappointed…

In the end, he never had to forsake the feelings he held for Freud in fear of betraying her, never had to ignore, to push away… to hurt.

All along… Everything he could've had…

He was such a fool.

69. **Shattered **

Serene like the moonlight, reminiscent of starshine; the night had crashed and shattered into millions of pieces that time, leaving nothing but a black, hollow, empty space of echoes and silence.

How is it that he is reminded of mortality at every turn but never of his own?

70. **(Bitter) Silence**

He tried not to get too close at first because although he would never admit it to anyone, not even to himself, he was scared.

Scared of failure, scared to be hurt so deeply again.

He tried to focus on his anger, his indignation, his airy indifference. But he found that the more he closed himself off, the more the silence that surrounded him started to turn increasingly and bitingly bitter as he wondered if he was to carry on the rest of his life loveless.

71. **(The) True (You) / [When the Morning Comes]**

Composed and distant azures that lit like sunlight upon glittering expanses of ocean at curiosity awakened.

Witty and sarcastic words playing forth from a teasing mouth.

Wisdom beyond years, intelligence sharper than swords.

Gentle words of song in still, empty airs unheard by stray ears.

Rare lilting laughter that could never be anything but genuine in their delight.

A cool and calculating face to hide for a hurt heart that still found strength to beat for others.

That was who Freud was.

That was the man Phantom loved best.

72. **Pretense / [Queen's Palace]**

They were good at playing masks, them two. So good that if they weren't careful, their masks would threaten to meld permanently onto their faces in a gleeful satire of the features above which they rested.

As it stands, it's already too late to be able to take them off. They now live and breathe through those masks, a perpetual fixture as they acted on the grand stage of life, sometimes forgetting themselves in their masquerade. The means they had assumed to safeguard themselves through and from life now act against them, have now taken a life of its own to threaten the integrity and sovereignty of their characters.

But it takes a mask to see a mask and that was exactly what they were in the end. They may dance around each other sometimes but they can see it for what it is, know to look through the gaps and to remind each other of the breathing being beneath.

It's what they have each other for after all.

73. **Patience / [Chryse Agit]**

He doesn't speak. He simply sits and waits as he has taken to doing the past week as he sips his tea on his wooden chair in front of the fireplace alive with flames that crackled quietly to itself as it cast the room in its warm glow of flickering orange and yellow.

The soft rhythmic sound of a clock ticking away moment's passing emanated from somewhere in the still room only occasionally interrupted by the clink of china.

Shadows shift in the corner, breaking away as a figure steps forward from within its depths and slumps onto the open chair across Freud, who calmly looks up and watches him in silent regard.

"Why do you even bother?" Phantom whispers, voice hoarse, as wearied as the man who carries the hollowed eyes tired from grief and self-loathing.

Freud doesn't miss a beat as he fills Phantom's teacup with aromatic tea. "Because you are worth it."

Phantom hangs his head and closes his eyes.

74. **Midnight / [Ellinel: The Fairy Academy]**

Midnight is witching hour, the time of night when all things magical come to life, where the dreams of stars awaken in dance under the moonlight of lucid fantasy, wild in the tint of imaginations' sighs.

Under its glimmering shroud weaves its master of the finest tricks, laughing fingers working the net and strings of the most exquisite enchantments into the fabric of its charming cloak laden in the costume jewelry of wonder and bewilderment for the greatest show in the world.

75. **Shadows / [Mirror World: Magatia]**

Well-polished boots clicked down damp cobblestoned streets dimly lit only by the hazy yellowish-orange of the surrounding streetlights and the occasional lit window though the familiar shroud of shadows still clung to the severe countenance of the town, giving it an even grimmer look.

He wrapped the splendid white cloak–at utter odds with the enigmatic atmosphere—more tightly around him to keep the chill of the night at bay as he walked down the road, business fixed firmly at the forefront of his mind.

Magatia.

In the past it was just an insignificant little research town that didn't so much as make a blip in the maps of even Ariant. Now it has risen to quite the impressive reputation.

Freud would've delighted in this place.

Phantom frowned, amethysts narrowing.

This town hides many intrigues, secrets that will never remain so for long, especially not if the Master of Thieves had set his sights on them.

76. **(Summer) Haze**

He was relatively mild and reserved upon meeting but like a fine summer haze that blurs the true appearance of the surroundings, this only holds for those who care to reciprocate cordial treatment. Those who do not extend even courtesy after the first three meets would find themselves on the receiving end of a sharp tongue. Blunt, unhesitant, and completely unrepentant, he is quick to point out hypocrisy with the potential to shred anyone back down from their high horses. In light of all these facts, it's never a good idea to anger the well-mannered Dragon Master.

77. **Memories / [Cygnus's Garden]**

They held too many memories.

Their pasts, they could never escape. Their very beings, recollection's fabrication.

If life were a dream, they would be mere sighs in the throes of reality for they cannot exist separate from the transient past but a mere illusion in the minds of man.

Still. "You learned to live with that and found the will to link it with your future didn't you, Freud?"

78. **Change (in the Weather) / [Snowy Village]**

"Look Mir! It looks like it's going to snow!" Evan cried in boyish excitement to his partner as he pressed against the window to which the dragon gave him an equally giddy squeak. "Sir Phantom!"

"Yes lovely," was the monotonous answer, his temporary guardian having hardly even looked up from the newspaper as he reclined comfortably in his plushy armchair with a cup of hot tea at his side.

"Gee Sir Phantom, you sure don't like any weather outside of sunny," Evan said. Turning back to the window, he watched as the first snowfall of the year began its dazzling decent. "I hope you feel better soon sir."

A humming acknowledgement answered his well wishes.

79. **Illogical / [Injustice]**

"This time… for sure… I'll kill them," Phantom murmurs to himself, violets like poison as he made his final preparations for his mission.

Freud looks over and with a carefully neutral expression and tone of voice asks, "And then?"

"Then I move on."

"Which entails?"

Phantom doesn't answer him as he finishes his preparation and moves to leave.

80. **(Only) Human / [Devil in Despair] **

"I've been telling you over and over but no! You wouldn't listen! You just wouldn't listen to me!"

"I know."

"Goddesses! Why do you have to be this way? Why must you be so reticent and stubborn in these sorts of matters?"

"…"

"I wish you didn't act as though the world was yours to carry!"

"I know."

"I wish you weren't so irritatingly single-minded!"

"I know."

"I wish you aren't such a damn perfectionist!"

"I know."

"I wish you stopped overthinking things!"

"I know."

"I wish it wasn't you."

"… I know."

81. **(A Place to) Belong / [Missing You]**

The world needn't understand them. It was enough if it provided them with a place to belong and they found that in each other.

82. **Advantage**

It was hard to say who would gain an advantage in a full scale fight.

On the one hand, Phantom had ingenuity on his side, was quick to think on his feet, and was rather elusive, making him a very frustrating target.

On the other hand, Freud was highly intelligent, able to assess situations swiftly and accurately and devise complex strategies for them in the blink of an eye and his magic was a force to be reckoned with even without Afrien by his side.

But rather than ponder who had the advantage over whom, it would be easier to simply call them equals.

83. **Breakfast **

Breakfast was often a hit-or-miss affair between them. If Phantom could manage to get Freud to so much as give the slightest indication of an agreement to take a five minute break for food, Freud would often find himself from one moment sitting in front of a simple fare of fruit and coffee to somehow finding himself going the whole length outside in the morning sun with a breakfast picnic and Phantom with that smug self-satisfied look on his face.

But if not, if Freud refuses to give even an inch, that was usually the end of the story but well, it never stopped Phantom from leaving at least a piece of toast or two and a rather lengthy and vociferous note of complaint in his wake.

84. **Echoes / [Time Gate]**

If he listened closely, he might hear the echoes of loud boisterous laughter amid a cacophony of angry screeches and harsh demands.

He might hear the remnants of a great voice like a gentle rolling thunder over a distant plain as it spoke of life and debated its mechanisms.

But he never had to listen closely to hear chiming mirth filled to the brim with impish glee because it was never too far away in his mind.

85. **Falling / [Rusty Throne]**

Phantom knew himself for exactly who he was. Of course, there were some embellishments but when it came down to what truly mattered, he knew exactly but he never thought to truly question what Aria could have seen in him until she was dead.

The first poisonous tendril of doubt had gripped him then. It made him wonder. What was the worth of a man who could not even protect the woman that he loved?

But Freud, so steadfast and resolute, had given him every benefit of a doubt with his silent and unwavering confidence in him and he began to remember who he was again.

When he lost Freud too, he couldn't help but fall and fall and fall…

86. **(Picking Up the) Pieces**

The pieces of glass were sharp on his skin even through his gloves, biting through its protection to form stinging wounds.

His fingers bled as he picked each fragment up.

"Sir Phantom wait!" Evan gasped, reflexively blocking Phantom's hand from reaching the next shard and turning an embarrassed red when his temporary guardian raised a brow at him. "You shouldn't do that to yourself… I'll help you."

87. **Freedom **

He was a person who took no sides, merely a man unto himself.

If the land were to suddenly deny him at every turn, he would probably sprout wings and simply continue on his course as he pleased and Freud found himself admiring the thief for his courage to fly.

88. **Possession / [Dancing With the Moon]**

He was a man who always knows what he wants. Some would call him ambitious and he would happily agree because it was this very ambition, this very _drive _that he was _alive_ and he was _proud._

89. **Twilight / [Dusk of God]**

He doesn't recall much of the battle just before he fell unconscious and what he does is disjointed, the pieces of his memories stuttering here and skipping to another scene there.

He doesn't recall much of their escape from the ruined Temple of Time either but still, there is one instance he could remember clearly, having awoken at some point upon Afrien's back as they soared through the air, the wind chilly as it rushed by him in a great howling force.

What he remembered was the sun bleeding a seething scarlet vibrant as blood into the sky as the insistent night pressed down to extinguish the last of its light and he remembered it because he was suddenly struck with the numbing certainty that

_Ah… this must be the end._

90. **Nowhere (and Nothing) / [Blizzard Castle]**

He was a no one going nowhere fast with nothing to his name if he even had one at all.

Now he has made a name for himself and he has become a someone but in the end, he still went nowhere and while once upon a time he may have had a _something_, he is now left with nothing even as he held riches beyond anyone's wildest dreams, even as he lived in ample luxury, he now had nothing.

91. **Answers**

Freud wondered if he had grown to be the kind of man his uncle had seen in him, whether he had fulfilled the promise he had made to him all those years ago. Despite his shortcomings, despite all that he was about to leave behind, would he be proud of him? Was this enough? Was this okay? Could he rest now?

He smiled to himself.

He already knew the answers.

92. **Innocence / [Fantasia]**

Evan was innocent in a way Freud had never been.

While Phantom would've normally asserted that "innocence" was just a nicer way of saying "ignorant" he somehow doesn't want Evan to lose that part of himself because while innocence may be ignorance, to see him broken into something like himself or Freud wasn't something he wished to see Evan become.

Evan grew and grew fiercely and all this time, Phantom waited for the other shoe to drop, for the young Dragon Master to change.

As time stretched into years, Evan exceeded and continued to exceed expectations and this was no different

Evan matured of course but he still somehow managed to keep that part of himself crystal clear, as though all along he had always carried with him translucent certainty of just who he was and his life's purpose, something that couldn't be stained easily, not by the ugliness of the world or by anyone but himself and Phantom could acknowledge that that was a commendable strength of character that neither he nor Freud had ever possessed.

93.** Simplicity**

Sometimes Phantom forgets about life, forgets that there was a world beyond riches and spoils, violence and vengeance and himself, that the sun is bright and warm, the skies are hushed in soft pastels in the morns, and the scent of the lake pleasant as the evening blows in.

But when Freud smiles and shows him _things_, weaves for him _worlds _of _wonder_ out of things that could be as simple as stars at night, he suddenly remembers; the blissful taste of soup and bread from a kindly maiden to help a starving soul, chasing the worn scarf of a young boy who could've been his lifelong brother had he lived, the slight clean smell of the oasis cradled in the evening lulled in peace and tranquility.

Phantom remembers mercy and he is content.

94. **Reality / [Step of Kaiser]**

The world fell away around him.

Reality, crumbling.

Nothing mattered save the figure of a small boy about to be swallowed whole in the jaws of death right before his eyes.

_Goddesses let me make it, _Phantom begged, wretched desperation like none other before bursting in his chest. _Please…!_

_I have no one left…_

95. **Acceptance**

He has come far and lost much in the way but he thinks he could finally do it, this resolution he has always wished for but has always feared at the same time.

But the truth lies before him now and at last, he finally embraces it.

96. **Lesson / [Great Temple]**

It was strange, writing down his life lessons, the history and foundation of the Dragon Masters, and condensing every and all secret knowledge of magic he held into this one tome. It was strange in the way it felt akin to building one's own coffin, as though he has already consigned to death. Of course, that was a very real outcome of this venture and it's the very reason he was composing this book in the first place.

Certainly he intends to live to mentor and to see rise the next generation of Dragon Masters. But if he doesn't… It's in his hopes that he has been able to adequately render the sentiments of not only him but of the Dragon Masters and Onyx Dragons past so that the future can understand their hopes and dreams, that this book will find the young buds and guide them through the tempestuous torrents that will be bestowed upon them.

May this book find those confused youths upended into an unknown world full of chaos and help them in those turbulent times.

This Dragon Master's Legacy.

97. **Enthusiasm / [Dimensional Library: The Aurora]**

Fascinated sky blues skimmed across the wisdom bound between orange and yellow leather covers balanced across his knees, completely enraptured and even slightly mystified.

"What are you reading?"

Evan gasped and whipped around so fast he almost fell off his seat, putting a hand over his heart to steady its frantic beating upon catching sight of the immensely amused face of his guardian.

"Sir Phantom!" he griped before sighing and turning back to the ancient yellowed pages. "I'm just reading hopes and dreams."

His hand brushes across the tome gently, respectfully, feeling the slightly course texture of the paper kept carefully smooth and the creases of worn leather underneath his fingertips and Evan's expression softens.

"This person must have had me in mind all the time when he wrote it. It's easy to tell because it's so carefully written and everything just speaks to me, answers all my questions as though I was actually speaking to him about my doubts. Even if I'm feeling nervous about my future and what's going to happen, somehow when I read this, I always feel so reassured…"

Evan's face tightens in determination, a stubborn look of seriousness on his face as he says, "Me and Mir will make his wish come true. Afrien's and the Dragon Masters before us too. We'll make them proud."

Phantom's mouth curves in a slight smile as he ruffles the young boy's chestnut hair.

98. **Game / [Mirror World: Ludibrium]**

"You know, if you keep going on like this, you'll end up needing a pair of glasses."

"I suppose so."

"It'll complete your image of a shut-away bookworm."

"I think I'd like being a shut-away bookworm if it means being able to get away from you."

"Nothing can keep me away from you and I won't keep away until I win you over from your marriage with work."

"Then you'll find that you're going to have a hard time of it because I'm perfectly happy in my relationship."

"Then I suppose I'll have to whisk you away then! I'm a rather jealous man after all. I can't bear having your attention on anyone but me."

"I rather think that's your narcissism talking Phantom."

"Ah but if it's not you it's meaningless. Come, let us elope and I promise you the sweetest happiness you will ever experience in your life."

A laugh.

"Nice try Phantom."

99. **Friendship / [Release Your Spirit High]**

Before anything else, before they were scholar and thief, Dragon Master and Master Thief, partners, comrades, or whatever it was that was between them, they were and are first and foremost friends. It was simply a fact, obvious as the air they breathed and as immortal as time itself. That would never change, not for anything.

Phantom's hand was as tight as a promise as it held onto Freud's. Both their faces were grim and weary, their eyes hard. The final battle loomed over them so full that it felt wont to burst over their heads at any moment.

"Phantom," Freud spoke, quiet yet stern.

Phantom tipped his head.

Words were a hassle.

They already knew.

100. **Endings / [Wounded Leaf]**

They stood on the crest of the hill, weather eternally peaceful, skies infinitely blue, the rainbow of pastel flowers forever in bloom; everlasting, just like the man who rested before them.

It was willowy and beauteous Mercedes who stepped beside him and rested a delicate but firm hand on his shoulder and Evan turned to look at her.

Her petal pink lips were stretched into a thin smile, long lashes lowered sadly over mourning sapphires as they gazed contemplatively up at him, lovely features softened in sorrowful acceptance.

"It is for the best, I think," Mercedes murmured quietly, her message almost taken away from her along with the wind as it rushed over the hill in a great whisper and into the endless lands beyond. "It seems… the day the Empress Aria died he was an incomplete man and the moment Freud had passed away, Phantom was never again meant to remain in this world for long as his heart had already followed them up into the heavens."

"It is… admirable that he has made it so far nonetheless. In that regard I can at least… respect him," Luminous admitted, unreadable heterochromatic eyes fixed upon the pure white stone in front them decorated with all manners of flowers and finery, including the "silly" hat the thief had almost always worn that Evan nostalgically remembered constantly trying to steal from him when he was younger; a final extravagant farewell for an extravagant man.

Aran remained solemnly silent but made an intricate pattern of hand gestures as a show of respect.

Evan nodded slowly, eyes sliding back in front of him where the single stone silently sat, as if patiently waiting for him to speak.

Mir's large head was bowed beside him, eyes previously hidden behind scaly lids were now open to reveal a single golden iris that fixed itself contemplatively first upon Evan before flickering over towards their late mentor's grave.

Evan nodded in silent communication with his partner and knelt slowly upon the ground.

"Master Phantom…"

He wet his dry and cracked lips, paused, then continued again, the words flowing as they pleased from his mind.

"Thank you for looking after Mir and I. Without your guidance, we wouldn't have made it through this alive. We wouldn't have grown up to be who we are today. Thank you for saving Maple World once again even though I know you could've turned your back on it many times. Thank you for staying with us until the end and thank you for… for…"

Evan's mouth moved soundlessly, as though it was perplexed by the utter lack of ability to articulate any of what he truly felt before he shook it off and said instead, "I don't know how you felt about all this; you never tell me or Mir anything and I don't know if you found enjoyment in hanging around a bunch of brats like us." Evan's lips curved into a slight smile. "But… I hope you finally found the happiness you were looking for."

At his last words, Mir arched his neck and released a trumpeting bellow, the sound seeming to reach even the far, unseen spaces beyond.

* * *

And that is it. As I've said at the end of the first version as well, I drew a picture of how I envision Evan would look like as an adolescent so feel free to take a look at it in Deviantart: Evan in Adolescence by snowyskyes.

Thanks for reading!


End file.
